Friday, July 3, 2009

Me Encanta Espana - Cadiz, Sevilla, Cordoba, y Granada (part 3)

Ok so I just got back from Rome and really need to finish talking about Spain so here it goes.
So we ate dinner in Cordoba and went out and did some shopping and a lot of walking around.  There was this one really cool club (we just went in for 20 sec to look in) and the walls were lit up with this neon green tile-ish stuff so it glowed.  But it was way smoky because everyone smokes like everywhere here.  So they we went to sleep about 2:30am.  At 4 the phone rings and my roommate comes in and we talked for a while and went to sleep.  We woke up early (I'm not sure but I think like 7ish) and eat breakfast.  Then we took tours of the Mezquita (this really huge Mosque), and the medieval Jewish Quarter, Judería.  Then we drove about 2 hours to Granada.
In Granada we ate dinner at the hotel (way better food than the first hotel in Cordoba - not that there was anything wrong with that food, but this food was really good).  There was pasta and salad and lots of dessert.  We had the rest of the night free but the town was kind of far away and we didn't want to have to take a taxi or walk far up this huge hill (I have pictures).  Some people found this spot around the back of our hotel that overlooked Granada.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  I think that was my favorite part.  We past some olive trees on the way.  Alex and Emily tried to eat olives but they were really hard.  Then we got up to this part with this structure (I really don't know how to explain it - you just have to see the pictures- it was so pretty).  We got there when it was light out so we could see everything and stayed and watched the sunset.  I have a great video of some people climbing on the top of this hut thing to get a "better look".  So after a while we went back in the hotel, had some sangria and just sat on the couches and hung out.  We met one of the life long learners named Adam Adams.  I now refuse to call him by only his first name.  Then we went back out to the back of the hotel at night time so the stars were out and it was all lit up.  Then we walked a little bit and saw the outside of the Alhambra.  So the next morning we woke up, ate breakfast (also delicious) and walked to the Alhambra fortress-complex.  We took a tour inside and saw the most beautiful flower garden.  I took a bunch of flower pictures because it was all so pretty.  Then we went and walked around inside.  The whole thing was AMAZING.  I can't even describe all the things we saw on this trip.  The pictures really don't do them justice either, but it's a start.  Oh and that morning we were informed that the bus driver pointed out that it takes an extra hour to get back to Cadiz from Granada.  Apparently SAS have miscalculated and we had to leave an hour earlier to get back before the ship was supposed to depart.  Our trip leader kept saying we have to get back before they leave.  But we had over 70 people on our trip and the trip leader was the global studies teacher Alex Nalbach and the art teacher.  So they were definitely not leaving without us.  However, for every extra hour the boat stays in port there is some ridiculously huge fine of some odd thousand dollars.  So we were cutting an hour off our Granada stay so we could be back in time (we were supposed to get back at boarding time).  So this meant we had 20 minutes to eat lunch.  We gobbled up the still delicious food, ran to the bathrooms......... and then stood outside for 40 min waiting for the buses.  The streets are really narrow and there aren't really side streets so the first bus drove by the hotel and then was gone for about 10 minutes while it drove all the way down the road to turn around.  Then a while after that bus left, we saw our's drive by and had to wait for it to turn around.  So we're on the bus on the way back to the ship.  Then someone notices the scenery looks really familiar and before we know it we pass the hotel.  First we think we just had to drive really far to turn back around but no, we are driving way down to turn back around and stop at the hotel.  We are all wondering what's going on, but no one tells us anything and the driver gets off the bus.  Then someone sees the driver put a luggage bag on the bottom of the bus and he gets back on and we drive away.  So basically at this point we ended up not being any earlier than originally scheduled.  We get back to the ship 5 hours later and they held dinner for us (because that would be really mean not to have food for us to eat).  Well it turns out that the Barcelona trip had to reschedule their plane and they weren't getting back until later.  The ship left at 11pm instead of 8pm so it wouldn't have been a big deal, but we did get back.  I met up with some people for dinner and we all shared stories of what we did in Spain.  Of course by now we were all exhausted and had class the next day (and papers and exams coming up) so we got our stuff unpacked and went to bed.
The next three days were classes involving a lot of work.  There was a global studies essay (not bad - we had 4 parts to it and it was only 2 pages) and exam the third day.  The exam was done by honor code.  We got the test emailed to us and posted on the public folder at 7am and we could get the scantrons in the union anytime after that.  We just had to have it turned in by 11:30.  Which meant that we could take it anywhere and any time between then.  But no help, notes, book, over the time limit (1 hr 15 min unless documented needs).  But it was 100 questions of 20 sets of 5 matching so you really shouldn't have needed to cheat.  And then, before you know it, we are in Italy.  But I need some rest so that will be posted another day.
From the boat docked at Civitavecchia (Chee-vee-tah-veh-kee-ah), Italy, Sharon
 

1 comment:

  1. Your parents were in my dream the other night. I miss you a LOT but am glad you're having fun. Can't wait to have a slumber party! xoxo

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